Sherwood police are investigating after an officer shot a man after a low-speed chase through a residential area Wednesday morning.
The Sherwood Police Department said in a news release that officers responded to a disturbance shortly before 10 a.m. at Whitewood Drive and East Woodruff Avenue, north of East Kiehl Avenue. A man had reportedly been following a woman in the area.
Police said a man, whose identity wasn't released Wednesday, fled in a vehicle when officers arrived. He turned onto a dead-end street, and an officer tried to pull him out of the vehicle. But the man reportedly drove away, and his vehicle struck the officer.
That's when an officer fired one shot at the driver, according to the Police Department. The injured man continued to drive for a short distance, but police soon subdued and arrested him.
Police said the man was hospitalized in stable condition.
The officer struck by the vehicle reportedly had nonlife-threatening injuries. His identity and the names of other officers involved in the chase were not released late Wednesday.
Sherwood police spokesman officer Markus Peters said the officer who fired the shot was placed on paid administrative leave pending an investigation, in accordance with department policy.
The shooting Wednesday is the latest of several in central Arkansas over the past few months. Since October, Benton police have fatally shot three men. Little Rock police have shot two men, one of whom died.
Across the state, law enforcement officers have shot at least 32 people this year.
Wednesday's chase-turned-shooting in Sherwood began and ended in a housing subdivision, but Peters said there was no danger to residents.
"It was a low-speed pursuit," he said. "There was no speed that put anybody at risk or anything like that."
Peters declined to discuss the case further, saying it was an ongoing investigation.
"Detectives are still working," Peters said. "It's still being processed. No interviews have been done with the suspect."
No charges had been filed in the case late Wednesday.
Witnesses said the chase ended in the 2500 block of Walker Creek Drive, about 0.3 of a mile from the area of the initial disturbance call. Some construction workers outside a home in the area said police cars, with their lights flashing, converged from the north and south side of the street and surrounded a vehicle.
Ricky Sanchez, one of the workers, said officers then pointed their weapons at the vehicle. He said a bloodied man, who was holding his chest, got out of the vehicle and fell to ground.
Sanchez said he did not see whether the injured man was carrying a weapon. He said he and his co-workers ran "like deer" into some woods as police officers, guns drawn, approached the injured man.
"I was out here, we saw the action and I just ran away, you know," Sanchez said.
Blood could be seen spattered on the street near where the construction crew continued working Wednesday afternoon. There were no other signs that a shooting had occurred.
A resident of nearby Johnson Drive, who asked not to be identified, said he saw police confront a man at gunpoint on Walker Creek Drive. The man said he was watching Netflix when he heard sirens and looked outside.
"Just a bunch of police cars," he said. "And I saw them drawing down on the guy, but they never fired a shot."
Out of concern for public safety, police in Little Rock, Pittsburgh, Milwaukee and Oakland, Calif., are among several law enforcement agencies that prohibit officers from chasing people suspected of nonviolent, nonfelony offenses.
Peters declined to speak about the Sherwood Police Department's policy regarding vehicle chases.
"As more information comes out about what transpired, we'll follow up with more information," he said.
Peters also would not discuss the department's use-of-force policy.
Law enforcement agencies in many states -- including California, Louisiana, Colorado and Arkansas -- ban officers from shooting at moving vehicles, except to prevent death or serious injury.
The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette requested the Sherwood Police Department's written policies on vehicle pursuits and use of force under the state Freedom of Information Act. The department had not responded to the request late Wednesday.
Information for this article was contributed by Hunter Field of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.
Metro on 12/22/2016